Хождение посолонь в истории Русской церкви

Slovĕne. 2025. Т. 14. № 1. С. 7–39.

Uspensky B. A.

A peculiarity of the Old Russian divine service, preserved by the Old Believers, is a combination of sunwise (clockwise) and counter-sunwise (anti-clockwise) movement, conditioned by the organisation of the church space: in the altar space it was customary to walk against the sun (i.e. anti-clockwise), while outside this limited space, as a rule, one walked according to the sun (clockwise). This differs both from the Greek worship, where circular movement is performed anti-clockwise, and from the Latin (Catholic) worship, where it is usually performed clockwise. The direction of circular motion was considered to be very important, and in the history of the Church there have repeatedly arisen fierce disputes on this issue: one such dispute led to an unprecedented conflict between the head of the Russian Church and the head of the Russian state, another led to something even more serious: the schism in the Russian Church. What was behind these conflicts? Why was the Old Russian rite different from the Greek rite? Why was circular movement in opposite directions united in the Russian rite? The author tries to answer these and related questions.

Keywords: Old Believers, Old Russian church service, Greek church service, ritual circumambulation, walking clockwise and anti-clockwise, sunwise and counter-sunwise movement, worship of the sun, древнерусское богослужение, греческое богослужение, направление кругового движения, ритуальное движение по часовой стрелке и против часовой стрелки, движение посолонь и против солнца, почитание солнца, раскол Русской церкви